Oh Sister Where Art Thou
by Carlos68
Summary: An IS/Minecraft crossover, in the deep winter, Houki, Laura, Charlotte, Lingyin, Cecilia, and Tatenashi embark on the adventure of a lifetime as they set out to survive in the middle of nowhere. With nothing to lose, they make a hasty run for their lives and end up on an incredible journey filled with challenging experiences and technological twists they'll never expect.


Disclaimer: I do not own Infinite Stratos, Minecraft or Block Fortress

Oh Sister where art thou?

_**Chapter 1: Where the hell are we?**_

-0-

Houki was partially sprawled sideways on the left side of a riverbank; lying unconscious in her IS uniform. She was pressed up against a rock near the bank along with her unbraided hair all ruffled up behind her head as the rest of it laid on the snow and dirt underneath her side.

After what seemed like a while, she opened her eyelids in an unusual, slow confused manner as if something caught her attention. She left an expression of extreme confusion and a calm shock; it was due to a strange feeling throughout her body. Houki looks on her right arm that she is lying on top of and saw that the exoskeleton on her arm was gone as she saw her IS sleeve covering her arm. She slowly clenched her right hand in a fist briefly before look down the rest of herself and realizing that she is wearing her complete IS uniform.

She looked around her surroundings despite the rock obscuring the view behind her and notices she's sitting along the left side of a river bank of light clear forest on a somewhat cloudy day. She looked slightly to her right and saw a backpack, and a short white fur cloak folded on the ground with a Machete-like Shamshir lying on top of the cloak in its seethe.

Before attempting to take the stuff, Houki looked to her right and then down to check for anyone nearby watching over the stuff. Waiting about several minutes for anything to happen, she decided to get going and began crawling to the backpack and the cloak. Ignoring the cloak and machete momentarily, she grabbed the straps of the backpack and with her right and left hands and she slowly put the backpack on her back.

Before long, she stood back up almost perfectly since she was still slightly wiry when she awoken. With nothing to stop her, she crouched down to the machete and cloak and grabbed them both of the ground. Attaching the machete on her waist, she was glad that she had some sort of sword to protect herself since she had trained in Kendo for so long – she is always willing to use her Kendo on anyone who attempts to give her hell.

As for common sense, she took the backpack off briefly as she put the cloak on which only covered her knees about several inches while the rest of her cloths became hidden underneath and the collar was opened enough to expose her IS uniform collar. Finally, about the backpack, she was unsure of what it holds as she stepped towards it. But nonetheless, she kneeled down again, and she grabbed the backpack and put on which to her surprise; the backpack weighted 15 pounds. The temperature in the air was cold, but not cold enough to make Houki freezing quickly as she felt the moisture in the air on her hands.

Suddenly, as if it was meant to happen on purpose, an arrow from out of nowhere dart passed in front of her face to her left and it caused her to instinctively draw the Shamshir and take an instant fighting stance to the left. Upon turning to the left, there was a white skeleton with a bow drawing back an arrow ready to fire at Houki again at more than 200 meters away. Wasting no time, despite the weight on her from the backpack, she charged at the skeleton with her arms swinging slightly as she ran towards the skeleton. The skeleton was almost about to let go of the bow string with the arrow fully pulled back when Houki was about 30 meters, when all of a sudden; a figure from behind the skeleton grabbed it in a head lock and violently twisted the skeleton's neck to the right and breaking the skeleton's neck as it fired off its arrow randomly up to the right and go way above Houki's head.

Upon the skeleton's neck being snapped, the skeleton was thrown to the right a few feet away from where it stood and revealed the skeleton's killer. The skeleton's killer was no more and no less than Laura Bodewig, who was in her IS uniform too like Houki. Houki stopped 9 meters from where the skeleton had originally stood and she eyed Laura for a moment before she seethed her Shamshir. The sound of the steel blade of the Shamshir drew Laura's attention as a brief unintended alarm as Houki completely seethed the Shamshir with a quiet clack.

As brusquely as it got, Houki said to Laura "Laura, where the hell are we?"

"I have no idea Houki," Laura replied as she walked towards Houki "But there's some weird shit going on here."

As Laura approached Houki, Houki eyed Laura's additional fatigues over her IS uniform. Laura was wearing a matching white, double-breasted designed overcoat that went down to her waist and gave enough room to expose her collar and tie. But unlike the fur cloak that Houki was wearing, Laura's overcoat traded a hood for small square-shaped but well fitted pockets on the front and the lower area of the overcoat. As a last noticeable fatigue on Laura, she was also wearing dark-brown leather gloves that had a bit of snow on it from the possibility of Laura crawling on the ground probably moments ago.

Without getting to distracted, Houki was able to hear out some else form Laura as Laura approached her "One moment, I'm enjoying some R and R with my roommate, and the next thing I know along with you, were out in the middle of nowhere in a winter wasteland."

"It seems that way out here." Houki replied before hearing a disturbing rustling sound from the trees to the girl's left and in the opposite direction of the riverbank. The sound of the snow crunches and the light rustling of the bushes caused both Laura and Houki to turn to the left of the riverbank and get a familiar surprise. Charlotte and Lingyin stepped out of the light winter brush a bit shaken and being dressed as if they were almost twins. Behind them from the brush came Cecilia, who was partially covered in leaves from her arms to her waist as she followed both Charlotte and Lingyin out of the brush.

As Houki had her grip on the Shamshir and she was about to draw it again, she made an important eye on Charlotte and Lingyin's almost matching clothing. Like Ichika's IS uniform, both Charlotte and Lingyin were wearing matching trousers and blazers as it matched their IS uniforms with the exception of their different shoes and facial appearances. If that wasn't unusual enough, Cecilia was missing her usual skirt that she originally wore as it was replaced with white colonial-style breeches that went up to her knee, and a white civilian jacket that roughly fitted the high quality needs of Cecilia's comfort.

"Take it easy guys," Charlotte signaled as she came with her hands up at a low position to signify her innocence "It's just us."

Houki relaxed her grip on her Shamshir as she saw a slightly shocked expression on Charlotte, Lingyin and Cecilia's faces. Laura stood her ground with a blank face as if she was a guard passively alerted from a small noise. Besides Houki, Laura approved of Charlotte and the others "Dame, don't sneak up on us like that. Sneaking is the worst nightmare for a soldier."

Charlotte lowered her hands as she began moving away from the brush and allowing Lingyin and Cecilia to move along and towards Houki and Laura.

"Bien, bien." Charlotte said in French to herself before Cecilia took over with the talking.

"Bloody sakes, where did you all get those clothes?" Cecilia asked in surprise from everyone's different fatigues.

"Hmm, that's one of the weird parts." Houki first responded to everyone before Cecilia immediately asked another question about what was in the backpack.

"And by gal, what's in the bag?" Cecilia asked as if she was appalled before everyone looked at Houki in the same manner (except for Laura, who was not really concerned about what was in the bag).

"I'm not sure, but it's not safe to…" Houki was about to finish replying until a tornado siren blared somewhere in the distance. Everyone was in a sudden state of alarm as the siren quickly faded and allowing Laura to say only one warning "We may have company."

As Laura said that single warning, she randomly turned her head for a few moments before seeing the ugliest sight that she can ever see inevitable for her friends. In the distance of the lightly dense forest, there was a tiny company of dwarf-height, blockish green warriors coming straight at Laura, Houki, Charlotte, Lingyin, and Cecilia. The warriors were armed with swords and wooden shields as they approached at a slow but a rather quick pace as if it were a jog.

Laura eyeballed the warriors long enough before everyone else looked in the direction of Laura's eyesight and saw the warriors coming at them. All of them knew they could activated there ISs instantly, but there was a small but a titanic problem. As the warriors came closer and closer to the other riverbank, Lingyin gave out a distress signal involving the ISs "Umm guys, you may not like this, but I can't activate my IS."

Cecilia looked annoyed at Lingyin as if she was joking "Quickly your yapping, we have to counter these weasels that are coming at us!"

But Cecilia's annoyance sank as Laura said something similar relating to her IS "I can't activate mine either, something seems to prevent the ISs from activating or something."

"Moi aussi, I can't activate my IS too, it seems to be not responding to any thought or actions." Charlotte supported before Cecilia came to the same realization.

"Oh no, we are we going to do? I can't activate my IS either." Cecilia feared as Houki added lastly.

"There's nothing we could do without our IS, we got to make a run for it, we don't have any guns." Houki said before Laura looked at her skeptically.

"What's in the bag though?" Cecilia demanded before there was a whoosh of a couple jetpacks from the green warriors as they went up in the air and landed into the river.

Lingyin growled before she finally snapped at everyone "Don't stay here, we got to move! It's not safe here!"

As Lingyin almost turned around and making a dash back into the forest, Laura gave a brief ominous approval before making a run for it with Lingyin "Let's go then, fall back!"

"Wait for us!" Cecilia cried as she made a dash into the forest before Houki and Charlotte followed.

As soon as everyone else went into the forest, another sudden array of jetpack whooshes behind everyone from the river ignited as all 5 girls were running towards an 8 foot steep ridge in a tiny clearing of the forest. Lingyin and Cecilia were the first to grab the edge of the 8 foot ridge and Laura was 2nd to grab the edge. Houki was the third to get to the ridge but she didn't jump high enough and fell short of the ridge due to the weight from the backpack weighting her down. On the other hand, Laura pulled herself up and got up first while Lingyin and Cecilia were stilling trying to get up on the ledge. Charlotte was the last to jump high enough and pushed herself up onto the top of the ridge before Laura helped her up the rest of the way.

Laura shortly crouched on the ledge of the ridge and reached both her hands at Houki and signaling her to grab them. Houki turned her head briefly back at the warriors coming through the forest before turning her head back at Laura's hands and jumping with all her strength and with her arms extended out all the way to grab Laura's hands. Houki could hardly think that Laura was strong enough to pull her up, but Houki was surprised to how much strength Laura had as Laura grabbed Houki's hands and clenched them hard as Laura pulled her up. In order to relieve the strain on Laura's hands, Houki gripped her boots on the ridge to boost the speed and upward momentum. Before long, Laura pulled Houki up onto the ledge and pulled her completely to safety before Laura assisted Cecilia and Lingyin up to safety as with Houki.

As Lingyin got up from the ledge with Cecilia coming last, Laura advised all them briefly before getting a move on again "Keep going, they might keep pursuing us!"

Charlotte got the head start as Houki ran second and not least behind her before Laura, Lingyin, and Cecilia followed. But as everyone kept pace with Charlotte for a few moments, Charlotte stopped abruptly and looked down at the edge of a cliff. Houki and Laura stopped in time to see what Charlotte was looking down at as Lingyin and Cecilia followed close but carefully without slipping in the snow. Slowly and firmly, Houki, Laura, Cecilia and Lingyin peaked down the cliff and saw what they all just wanted; there was a cave 7 meters down to the right within the wall of the steep ridge, almost directly below the feet of all the girls. It was at this moment that it was the best time to see what was in the bag.

Laura looked at Houki for a moment with Houki's undivided attention before requesting something from her "Houki."

Houki turned her head to Laura before replying "Yeah?"

"If there's any rope in the bag, get it out quickly, we need to get down into that cave." Laura requested.

Houki gave a confused scowl before looking down back at the cave in the steep ridge and walking back a few paces away from the cliff. She crouched down on both knees and took the backpack off her with the crunch of the snow under the weight of the backpack. Unzipping the main compartment of the backpack, she was first met with a strange product within the backpack; rations. There were three separately boxed meal units within the backpack: breakfast, dinner (lunch) and supper. Houki could only hope that this type of food can be managed carefully, if not least, if it were to be any good than any ordinary packaged food.

So to be a little reserved, she zipped up the main compartment and went onto the secondary compartments. She opened up one of the few secondary compartments and found something just what she wanted; it was a bundle of 30ft rope. She zipped up the compartment and she left the backpack where it was before she gave the news to everyone "I found a bundle of rope. I don't know if it's long enough, but it's what we got."

Laura turned her head towards Houki before she walked over to Houki and took the rope in a bit of a controlled hustle towards a pine tree that is a tad close to the vicinity of where the cave is. Untangling the rope, she swung the rope around the tree trunk and she tied it in clove hitch knot before taking the rope and backing herself up to the edge of the cliff and looking over the edge to prepare the approach onto the cave below. Because of what she is doing, at the tad of everyone else's eyes, they were startled to see Laura attempting to rappel down into the cave in the steep ridge.

Charlotte was the first to see Laura attempting to rappel and she warned her "Laura, don't fall, we can't risk dying here in this wasteland."

Before Laura almost ignored Charlotte before rappelling down, Laura responded as if it was nothing "I've rappelled at more horrifying heights than this."

Without warning, Laura looked down at the edge of the cliff and she jumped off with her back facing towards the forest below down the steep ridge as she rappelled 10ft down and stopping just halfway down the steep ridge. Houki didn't bother watching as she went to the backpack again and put on her back before she took a look out of any of the warriors chasing after her and the rest of the girls. Charlotte, Lingyin, and Cecilia watched Laura continue rappelling down until she stopped almost short of the cave. Holding onto the last foot of the rope, Laura looked around herself for a moment before she came up with a solution to get into the cave. Laura reached her left hand onto the upper edge of the cave and she pushed herself back with a bit of backward momentum before grabbing the rope again and finally using the forward momentum to swing herself into the cave. Like Indiana Jones swinging across a pit with his whip, Laura let go of the rope just in time to land on her feet and almost tripping as she pressed herself into the wall of the cave and stopping her abrupt momentum.

Meanwhile, Lingyin and Cecilia looked at each other apprehensively about Laura. They had no idea if Laura was okay for moment as there was no response until they heard Laura's shouting from below "Rappel down her guys! It's safe down here!"

Again, Lingyin and Cecilia looked at each other with confusion as to do something extremely dangerous, by rappelling down into the cave. Before they knew it, they looked at the rope again and there was Charlotte climbing down the rope at about 18ft away from the cave below. Lingyin looked at Cecilia before babbling "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Before Lingyin finished her babbling, she had turned to her right and to the rope and leaving Cecilia to briefly rant "Don't leave me here, I have to get going too!"

Lingyin ignored Cecilia as she grabbed the rope and gradually climbed down onto the steep ridge as Charlotte was halfway down the rope. As Lingyin climbed down the rope at a gradual quickening pace, she stopped to look up at Cecilia who was grabbing the rope as if she didn't know what to do. Lingyin shouted up to Cecilia "What are you doing?! Come on you big sis, you said you're one of the elite of the elite, come on!"

Cecilia can only give Lingyin a scowl before having to force herself to climb down the rope. Down below, Charlotte had reached the last foot of the rope and she instantly knew that she was unable to bring any backward momentum to swing into the cave. But help was not too far away; Laura watched Charlotte came all the way down and she was waiting at the entrance of the cave to give Charlotte a hand. Laura gave out her right hand to Charlotte's left hand before assuring Charlotte "You got a grip on that? You got a grip on that?"

Charlotte nodded as she replied while holding onto the rope with her right hand "Oui."

Laura nodded before she swung her left hand onto Charlotte's right shoulder and pulled her in. At the same moment, Charlotte let go of the rope and she drew herself forward into the cave as Laura additionally lightly lifts her to aid Charlotte's entrance. Upon entering the cave, Laura let Charlotte down onto the ground and turning her away from the cave entrance before turning back to the rope to see Lingyin's boots coming into view.

"Uh oh, uh oh, I don't think I can be able to make in." Lingyin panicked as she came down into Laura's view.

"Quit your worrying, I'll help you in." Laura said as she saw Lingyin's arms.

Upon seeing Lingyin, Laura grabbed Lingyin's right boot and then grabbed her back with her left hand and held tight onto the clothing as Lingyin came to the final foot of the rope. Lingyin looked down at Laura with a light frown before nodding to allow Laura to pull her in. Instantly as a last minute change, Laura curled her right arm underneath Lingyin's knees and finally lifted Lingyin in while holding Lingyin's back with her left hand. Carrying Lingyin into the cave, Laura sat Lingyin down on to the stone floor of the cave before turning back to the rope to attend to Cecilia.

Meanwhile still up on the cliff, Houki was slowly gripping the rope as she crawled backwards to the edge. As she did so, she was running into a bit of a problem. Every time she gripped the rope, her hands get slowly colder as snow was being dragged onto the bottom of the rope for every grip she had. Other than that, Houki was slightly pressured from Cecilia calling to her "Houki, hurry up! You can't stay up on that cliff forever."

Houki didn't reply as she slowly climbed down the steep ridge and down towards the cave where everyone else is. Houki didn't bother to look down as she was descending down the rope slowly. As she was 14ft away from cave, disaster laid on the verge of striking. Unnoticeable to Houki and everyone else, the clove hitch knot that was tied on the tree trunk was weakening due to the frozen and brittle bark on the pine tree that was being scrapping against the tension of the rope. Every slight movement of the rope's threads was being weakened and hacked by the tree every second that Houki descended.

The rope was near its breaking point as Houki finally got to the final edge of the rope and was getting help from Laura to enter into the cave. "I got you, I got you, take it easy." Laura repeated as she grabbed Houki's right hand. Suddenly, disaster struck as soon as Laura started pulling Houki in.

The knot tied on the pine tree back up on the surface loosened from the brittle bark and the rope started being pulled towards the cliff and down the steep ridge. The resulting action from the rope loosening caused Houki to slip and fall backwards onto the stone floor and causing Laura to fall right on top of Houki as she slipped. In order to prevent any traumatic damage, Laura instinctively directed her fall to the slight right and avoided falling head on with Houki and instead falling onto the stone floor on her stomach. As soon as Laura fell onto the stone floor, there was a distant crack of ice down below and it was not too much of anyone's concern as Houki sat up and momentarily looked out the cave at the distant forest in the cloudy winter wasteland in still some surprise.

As if it were to happen on purpose, Laura craned her head up and she almost stood up until she reached a hand for Houki who was sitting with one leg bent and with the other leg being straight. Houki turned her head to the left to Laura and gripped Laura's hand with her right hand and unexpectedly, Laura pulled Houki to her feet. With that, Houki gave a prolong piece of advice "Alright now, where the hell are we?"

-0-

**Author Notes: Thanks for reading, if you think I should add anything within this story; do feel free to give me ideas or opinions in the reviews. But until then, farewell. **


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